When we bought our house in Rincon, the real estate agent told us that there were mature avocado trees on the property. Since we had not seen any avocados in the past year and a half, we assumed that the “avocado” trees were either not avocado trees, or they were male (not fruit producing). Well, look what we finally found!
Stefan was clearing out weeds down by the quebrada when he noticed the remains of a large avocado. After we looked around, we found a dozen of so rotted avocados on the ground. After looking around some more, we found a avocado tree that has HUGE avocados hanging off of it. The only problem is that the avocados are all on the top branches that are 40 - 50 feet up, so we have to wait until they fall and hope that we find them before the ants or animals do. 
Avocados - the trees can take up to 8 years before they produce fruit if planted by seed. A grafted tree produces in 3 or 4 years. We’ve got a couple huge old trees that produce a ton (hundreds) and thought it was a little crazy that there are 7 avocado trees here! But, they are all different ages so there will always be avocados - nice to have something green to eat! They also lure little cats into the yard (yum yum). You can stick really hard ones in a priority mail box and they will be ripe when they reach their destination! Our friends are amazed at the size and how buttery tasting they are! katrina
Summer,
I remember a way to catch those avocados up high in the tree. My dad used to get a long enough bamboo pole and install a rigged up net at the end. The net was usually home made with a wire hanger and a sewn up cloth net/bag. The way to “catch” the avocados will be to bring the pole with the net up to fit the avocado inside. Once positioned give it a good yanking and voila the avocado falls inside the net (like in a mini basket). I’m sure if you really want those avocados you can come up with an improved home made device.
Have fun!
Ham
Yesterday, Summer and I were discussing the fruit we have on the property and how much food our trees will be producing for us in a couple of years;
-Avocado
-Papaya
-Guava
-Oranges
-Lemons
-Grapefruit
-Mangos
-Star Fruit
-Banana’s
-Plantains
-Brazilian Cherry’s
-Peanut Butter Fruit
-Noni
-Coconuts
-Passion Fruit
(i know there’s more…summer?)
- Tamarind
- Pineapples
- Chocolate (Cocoa)
- Cinnamon
- Guanaba
- Mangosteen
- Beach Grape
- Breadfruit
and 5 or so more exotic fruits that I forgot how to spell.
PLUS, we got 18 new fruit trees today in Cabo Rojo. (Miracle fruit, kumquat, tangelo, navel orange, avocado, kanepa, another variety of mango, etc. etc…)
Stefan and Summer,
where in Cabo Rojo did you get your new fruit trees? We just had our property cleared and want to plant as much as possible when we return at Christmas. We were planning a day trip down that way anyway (La Parguera), so a side trip would be awesome!
Thanks in advance
Linda
Yeh my husband was telling me about the same thing that Ham said. U use a bamboo pole & the you make a circle out of wire & the wire fits right into the bamboo b/c of the hole inside. Then put a cloth around it to catch the fruits. Or you can probably just buy a swimming pool cleaner